Kumoha 12052 - it lives!

[railsquid]

On the way back from Yokohama yesterday the train went past the Oimachi depot, to my surprise I saw something brown and oblong - didn't have time to photograph, but upon further investigation it must be Kumoha 12052 (as recently released by Kato), which is evidently preserved there. (Or maybe they're keeping it around in case they can't get the E235 back into service ;) ).

[SuRoNeFu 25-501]

Or maybe they're keeping it around in case they can't get the E235 back into service ;)

As expected from JNR's old-type EMUs aka 旧型国電 

[Welshbloke]

Given that they're still using the same couplers, I wonder if it's being used as a depot shunter? There were one or two old BR EMUs which had that label applied, usually when a depot had grown fond of them and didn't want to see the whole fleet go for scrap. It kept the bean counters quiet as it was essentially free to operate apart from the electricity and some occasional maintenance.

[SuRoNeFu 25-501]

Given that they're still using the same couplers, I wonder if it's being used as a depot shunter?

Unfortunately, no. Passenger companies of JR Group uses dedicated switchers (which most of them are small-sized switchers) to move the cars inside the depot. Old EMUs have been already scrapped due to aging body and equipments...

[railsquid]

Given that they're still using the same couplers, I wonder if it's being used as a depot shunter? There were one or two old BR EMUs which had that label applied, usually when a depot had grown fond of them and didn't want to see the whole fleet go for scrap. It kept the bean counters quiet as it was essentially free to operate apart from the electricity and some occasional maintenance.

 

Apparently a Kumoni 13 was in use for that purpose some time in the past, though it doesn't say until when. The car was scrapped in 2010.

Edited February 7, 2016 by railsquid